Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

Saturday, November 23rd In the second game of the Sugar Creek Classic, the Stars matched up against the Crawfordsville Athenians, coming away with a great 51-35 team win. The Lady Stars bounced back from their loss from the day before and turned their offensive game around. The team was aggressive on both ends of the court, getting great looks at the basket and forcing the Athenians to turn the basketball over and have stagnant offensive possessions. The Stars went into halftime up 33-22, hoping to continue to extend their lead in the second half. The Lady Stars came out of halftime with the same tenacity as the first half, continuing to put pressure on the Athenians ball handlers and getting solid looks at the basket. Great defense, communication, and basketball movement lead to the overall awesome team win for the Stars. The team was led in scoring by Ally Lewis with 16 points, followed by Ila Stokes with 12. The Lady Stars are back in action on Tuesday for their first home game as they take on Sheridan. Come out and support your Stars! Friday, November 22nd As they prepared for Friday night's Sugar Creek Classic semifinal against Southmont, the Western Boone girls basketball team knew that Southmont liked to press and trap - and did it well, forcing more than 23 turnovers a game. And while the Stars were able to handle it well for spurts, the Mounties' defense proved to be the difference in a 48-40 win over WeBo. "We saw on the film we watched that they were going to be aggressive with the press," Western Boone head coach Hannah Kelly said. "We talked about that and their traps, and we got it to half court a few times, but we just panicked a little under the pressure." The Stars struggled early, missing their first five shots and shooting just 1-of-13 from the field in the first quarter - trailing 8-3 after eight minutes. But it looked like they turned it around in the second quarter, out-scoring the Mounties 15-7 to take a three-point lead into the half. Coming out of the half however, the Stars offensive lulls returned, as they turned it over six times and shot 3 of 14 from the field as Southmont built a six-point lead heading into the fourth. A 3-pointer by Olivia Reagan to start off the fourth quarter cut the deficit to 3, but Western Boone failed to score on its next nine possessions as the Mounties pushed the lead to eight. WeBo got no closer than six the rest of the way. freestar "We talked all night about slowing down our offense and setting something up, instead of just throwing up the first shot we see," Kelly said. "We struggled with that in the first quarter, and we regrouped a little bit, but that's just one thing we didn't implement in the second half." Western Boone had 23 turnovers in the game and shot just 15 of 57 (26% from the field). They were also out-rebounded 46-35, including letting Southmont grab 10 of their 15 offensive rebounds in the second half - leading to nine second-chance points. "We tell our girls that rebounding is about effort," Kelly said. "It helps to be tall, but most of it is effort. They just wanted it more underneath the basket tonight. We didn't put a body on anybody when we needed to and they got them quicker than we did overall." Ally Lewis led the Stars with 12 points, with Ila Stokes and Jaylee Dickerson adding seven each. The Stars are back in action Saturday in the third-place game against Crawfordsville. The game will tip off at 4 p.m. "I think it will be good mentally for the girls," Kelly said. "We tell them to reflect, but don't dwell on the game, cause we have a quick turnaround. We saw Crawfordsville tonight and they are scrappy with a lot of energy. We have to understand that, play our style of game and stay focused and under control." Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.